


Friendly Fire

by lopingloup



Series: Whumptober 2018 [22]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: AU, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, Comfort/Angst, F/M, Fix-It, Fluff and Angst, Friendly Fire, Gen, Gunshot Wounds, Hurt Klaus Hargreeves, Kidnapping, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Klaus Hargreeves Needs Help, Klaus Hargreeves Whump, Knife Wounds, Minor Character Death, Post-Canon Fix-It, Violence, Whump, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2020-03-13 06:44:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18935545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lopingloup/pseuds/lopingloup
Summary: An AU/reimagining of THAT scene in Umbrella Academy when Patch goes to save Klaus.





	Friendly Fire

**Author's Note:**

> So hi! It's been months...uni's been keeping me busy, but I have been working on these final Whumptober fics, because I may 7 months late, but I will damn well finish what I started *awkward thumbs up*
> 
> oh also, this is not at all loyal to the 'friendly fire' prompt. There's none, opps. But there's gunshots, it's the thought that counts, right?
> 
> Thanks as always to Imperial_Dragon, who is the best beta anyone could ask for. And shout out (tho they probably won't see this) to AnOddSock, for being the most wonderful friend, and to InkRanOut, for being awesome and dragging me into the epic Dragon Prince fandom :)
> 
> anywho, enjoy!

Diego eased two knives from where they were strapped to his hip and made his way silently up the stairs on the outside of the motel block. The thought that Patch _needed_ him, had sent for him, spurred him on, his heart thudding like it always did before he went in somewhere to fuck someone up. And her message that Klaus was being held by those nut-jobs in the freaky animal masks scared him; his brother drove him up the wall but no-one got to hurt him. Their relationship was fucked up, but they were still family.

He was half-way up the second set of stairs when a gun shot rang out, fast followed by a second, and he bolted forwards, taking the steps two at a time, terrified that he’d be too late. One motel door hung open and Diego raced towards it, grabbing the door frame as he skidded inside.

Patch was there, her back to him with her gun pointed forwards, though she twisted her head over her shoulder when he came running inside. He grinned half-hysterically at her, shuddering with sudden relief that she was okay, that the gun shots had been hers. She returned his wild grin with a twitch of the mouth before turning back, her gun still up and pointed at what looked like an open bathroom door.

“Police!” Patch yelled. “Drop the gun or you’re going down!” Patch eyed Diego and jerked her head to the left. Looking where she’d nodded to, Diego saw his half-naked, sweat-drenched brother sprawled on the floor beside the motel bed, Klaus’s eyes huge as he stared up at Diego. He was only wearing a bath towel and had been gagged with gaffer tape and Diego’s heart clenched at his sickly paleness and the blood on his face. No-one had even noticed he’d been missing.

Diego crouched down beside him, gripping his skinny shoulder before he reached up to peel the tape from Klaus’s pallid face. There was a clatter from the other side of the room and Diego looked up to see an arm extended from the bathroom door, their hand empty now that they’d dropped the gun. Diego shot a wary look at Patch, whose lips were pressed tight together, her jaw locked.

Diego glanced briefly at his brother. “You alright?” he muttered, knowing full well Klaus wasn’t.

“Fucking peachy,” Klaus hissed under his breath, before giving him a creepily cheery grin. “Didn’t expect you to come rescue me, big bro.” Diego’s heart clenched but he didn’t have chance to answer.

“Coming out,” a male voice said from the bathroom. “Don’t shoot.” Diego came out of his crouch, fingering his knives. He didn’t fucking like this. He took a couple of backwards to stick his head out of the motel door to check the corridor just as a large, white male stepped out of the bathroom, his hands raised. He seemed surprised to see Diego there, his eyebrows raised.

“Hands behind your head, asshole,” Patch said and Diego couldn’t help but twitch a smile.

“Okay,” the guy in the suit said, “just don’t shoot.” He went slowly down on his knees and Diego scowled, twitching as he scanned the room. He didn’t like this; this guy was going down too quietly. And where was his partner?

Diego saw a slight movement out of the corner of his vision and moved before he knew what he was doing, he snapped his hand out to grab an arm, wrenching the person sideways as a gun went off.

“Fuck!” a woman’s voice – but not Patch’s – yelled and then Diego was wrestling her to the floor, crushing her wrist with his foot to get the gun out of her hand. Patch was on the floor as well and Diego could see blood. The woman had fucking _shot_ Patch and fury turning Diego’s skin hot and then cold, his vision blurring. In his terror for Patch and rage at the bitch he was pinning down, he forgot about the guy by the bathroom.

“Diego!” Klaus yelled and Diego looked up just in time to see the guy moving to snatch up the gun he’d dropped and Diego let loose a knife and then another, both of which slammed in the guy’s broad chest, blood spreading like spilt paint across his white shirt. The guy looked down in surprise before he collapsed, landing with a hard thud on the thin carpet.

Diego grabbed the woman on the floor by her hair and slammed her face-down into the crappy motel floor before he was surging to his feet, only to collapse to his knees at Patch’s side.

“Patch?” he said desperately, reaching out to touch her back, her face. “Patch?” Her eyes were wide open and Diego thought for a horrific second that she- but then she blinked and looked up at him and Diego choked. “Where are you hurt?” he pleaded. “Patch talk to me.”

She groaned quietly and then tried to sit up and he wrapped an arm around her to help her, only to flinch violently when there was an agonised yell from behind him, Diego reflexively hunching over Patch to protect her and whipped his head around, a knife in his hand without his being aware of picking it up. He stared at the sight of Klaus on his knees, a gun pressed to his head by the woman Diego thought he’d knocked out.

Klaus whimpered as the woman dug the muzzle of the gun – the gun Diego had torn from her hands – into the side of Klaus’s head. Blood was streaked down her mouth and chin from a bloodied nose and her eyes were murderous.

“Drop that knife,” she snapped, her teeth red with blood. Diego hesitated only a split second before Klaus’s terror-stricken face made him drop the knife. “Hands where I can see them, fucker.” Diego raised his hands, though Patch stayed leaning against him. “You’re gonna stay right there, not moving a muscle,” she ordered, spitting blood, “and maybe I won’t blow his brains out.” Klaus clenched his eyes shut, his bare chest jerking up and down like he was having trouble breathing.

“Okay,” Diego said, fear making him sweat. He had Patch half-conscious and wounded, possibly critically, but, fast as he could throw, there was no way he could hit that bitch between the eyes before she pulled the trigger and wiped Klaus out. “Okay, don’t hurt him, okay?” he said. She grinned manically, teeth bloody.

In the distance he could hear sirens approaching and he saw the woman tense. She glared at him, edging towards the doorway and dragging Klaus, half-dressed and panicked, with her. “You fucking move and he’s dead, understand?” she growled.

Diego nodded quickly, his hands still above his head, and then the woman yanked Klaus out of the door and they disappeared from sight.

The room was suddenly silent, with just Diego’s too-fast heartbeat and rasping breathing in his ears. He grabbed his knife, desperate to go running after Klaus, but Patch’s blood was seeping warmly over his thigh and she was deathly pale. He fumbled for his phone and called an ambulance, staring at Patch as he did so, pleading silently with her to stay with him, to not fucking die on him.

When 911 answered, he snapped out that a detective had been shot and their location before he rang off.

“Patch?” he begged. He wrenched off her brown jacket and she groaned as he scanned her shirt for blood, finding it oozing out of her right side, between her ribs. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he muttered, before he was grabbing the sheet from the bed and balling it up tight to press against her side. She grimaced in pain, her breathing sounding wet in a way that scared him. “Hang in there,” he pleaded.

He twisted to look at the door, torn in half between needing to save Patch when she was literally bleeding out in his arms and terrified that he was going to hear a gunshot from outside the motel, that he’d find Klaus in the car park glassy-eyed and dead, and that Patch might die anyway and he wouldn’t have saved either of them.

“Diego,” Patch murmured.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m here,” he said. The cop sirens were closer, or maybe they were the ambulance. God, he hoped they were the ambulance.

“Go help...your brother,” Patch said. Diego stared at her.

“No,” he whispered, “I can’t leave you…” But he looked out of the motel door and thought that the woman had to be getting close to reaching her car if she hadn’t already and she wouldn’t fucking leave Klaus alive, oh god-

“Go,” Patch hissed. Her hand closed over where Diego was pressing the sheet to her side. Her grip was strong and her eyes intent with determination and Diego stared at her and knew that he’d die for her. “ _Go_ ,” she said, softer, but she was still lucid and the command in her tone was heavy.

“Okay,” Diego murmured. He made sure her hand was holding the sheet against the wound and then he shifted away from her, shooting one, last agonised glance at her, before he bolted from the room, tearing down the stairs and jumping the last five.

He scanned the car park, suddenly blinded by flashing blue lights as cop cars tore in, before he made out two figures, one bulky and darkly-dressed, the other slender and paper-pale, on the other side of the car park.

Diego ran. The woman seemed to be struggling to get the car opened with the gun still pressed to Klaus’s head. Klaus noticed him first, eyes wide, as Diego raced over and then the woman started to turn, but Diego raised his hand and sent the knife in his hand flying. His hand was slick with sweat but it didn’t matter; the knife flew true, hitting the woman in the back of the neck and severing her spinal cord. She went down hard, hitting her head on the car and she didn’t move on the ground.

“Klaus?” Diego yelled as he ran over. “Klaus!”

“Yeah, I’m okay, I’m okay,” Klaus said, breathless and shaking so hard his teeth clacked together. “Are you okay? Is Patch-”

Diego couldn’t stop himself from grabbing Klaus and dragging him into a suffocating hug, holding him tight for just a second before he tore himself away. Blue lights flashed across Klaus’s face and the noise of the sirens was deafening before it was abruptly shut off.

“She’s bad- she’s bleeding- I-” Diego broke off. “I’ve got to-”

“Come on,” Klaus said, resolve settling over his features as he took hold of Diego’s arm and tugged him back towards Patch. “Let’s go.”

“Yeah, yes,” Diego said, before he broke into a shambling run, Klaus at his side.

“Stop!” a voice yelled. Diego, his hand moving to his remaining knives, froze, twisting around and pulling Klaus behind him. Someone- a police officer had a gun up and pointed at them and several others were getting out of cars to do the same.

Diego’s put his hands up for a second time that night and Klaus quickly did the same, though he hitched his bath towel up around his hips first.

“Diego?” the police officer said. The guy looked familiar but Diego couldn’t remember his name just then.

“Yeah, it’s me,” Diego said. He was shaking, with fear and adrenaline. “Patch is up there, I called an ambulance, you need to help her, she was shot-”

“Woah, slow down,” the officer ordered. “Hands behind your head, both of you.”

Diego did so, even as he pleaded with the guy to help Patch. “Detective Patch, you know her, right? She came here to help my brother- she got shot- she’s up there, for god’s sa-”

An ambulance came skidding into the motel car park and Diego could’ve melted from relief.

“You need to get the paramedics up there!” he said desperately, pointing up to the open motel door. “She’s going to fucking die if you don’t fucking _do_ something-”

“Diego, calm it buddy,” Klaus said quietly from by his shoulder and Diego sucked in a harsh breath, realising that the officer was getting twitchy in response to Diego’s yelling.

“Just help her,” he growled.

Paramedics came running over and Diego frantically directed them up to the motel room, even as he grudgingly went to his knees and let himself be cuffed. They tried to talk to him but his eyes were glued on the ambulance workers as they hurried up the stairs and he watched desperately for them to come down.

He was being manhandled into a car despite his protests when they finally did come down the stairs. It was difficult to make them out but they came down the stairs with a stretcher and Diego held his breath, his hands pressed to the cop car window, hoping desperately that that meant Patch was alive. That she’d be okay.

He felt Klaus’s hand on his shoulder and he appreciated it, even though he didn’t acknowledge it. The paramedics seemed to be hurrying over to the ambulance to load Patch in and they wouldn’t rush if she was dead, right?

“Is she okay?” he demanded from the officer in the front seat as he clipped his seatbelt in. “Can you radio them? Is she going to be alright?”

“I don’t know,” the guy said flatly, “I’m sorry. We’ll find out soon enough.”

The car ride was silent and painful, with only the crackle of the police radio in the background. Klaus leaned his shoulder against Diego’s and Diego gratefully accepted the comfort.

“Thanks,” Klaus said quietly. “For saving me and all.”

Diego just nodded, feeling sick with worry, but he was gladder than he could say that Klaus was okay.

*

“Hi,” Diego said softly as he perched on the edge of one of the plastic chairs beside Patch’s hospital bed.

She didn’t smile but her expression softened. “Hi,” she said quietly. She tried to pull herself up to seated, but her face went tight with pain and Diego lurched to his feet to support her. “I can do it,” she grumbled, but let him ease her upright, her arm curled around her abdomen.

She leaned back with a pained sigh and then turned to him. “They let you go then?” she said.

Diego tipped his head in a nod as he sat back down, looking up at her and feeling a rush of relief that she was awake and talking and on the mend, that he hadn’t lost her _or_ his brother when he’d started to fear he’d lose them both.

“Thanks to your statement, I’m doing just fine,” he said easily. “They don’t believe a word I say but they all love you.” He grinned sideways at her. “As they should.”

Patch snorted and rolled her eyes but her cheeks flushed a little. She was still too pale and she looked tired and worn, but the doctors said she’d come on in leaps and bounds since they got her stable, though it had been touch and go for a while, they said. Diego tried not to imagine it.

“What’re you thinking?” Patch said. “Your face is all screwed up.”

Diego huffed. “You worried?” he teased. Patch looked at him steadily in a way that reminded Diego of Allison, just a little, in the way she didn’t back down, seeming to be able to look past his bluster.

“Maybe I am,” she said.

Diego shook his head, not knowing what to say. “Reckon I was worried enough about you for the both of us, so don’t you start. I’m fine, you’re fine, everyone’s fine.” He pulled a face. “Well apart from those murdering fuckers, but they deserved it.”

Patch sighed, closing her eyes a minute, looking exasperated. “I’m too tried to argue with you, asshole,” she muttered, her eyes still closed.

“Okay, you win,” Diego said. “Get some rest or something, I don’t know. You falling asleep while I’m talking is really knocking my self-esteem.”

Patch opened her eyes to regard him with amusement. “Your ego is doing just fine,” she said fondly. She closed her eyes again and Diego took it as his cue to head out, already planning his next visit.

“Diego?” she said, and, for just a second, Diego remembered her saying his name like that when there was her blood all over his hands and he swallowed hard and had to mentally shake himself before he turned to her.

“Yeah?” he said, his voice cracking.

“We could go out for drinks, maybe,” she said casually. She was clearly tired but her gaze was focused on him. “When I get out of this damn bed.”

A smile spread slowly across Diego’s face and she returned it for a brief second before she rolled her eyes and waved a hand at him.

“That a yes then?” she teased. “You’re grinning like an idiot. Don’t get too excited.”

Diego forced himself to tamp down his smile but he only half managed it. “Yes,” he said. “’Course it’s a yes. Hurry up and get better, will you? It’s boring without you.”

“Uh huh,” she said as she faded into sleep, her eyes falling closed. Diego stood there in the doorway for a second, smiling at her, before he headed out. He was still grinning like an idiot as he walked down the hospital corridors but he didn’t care even for a second. He couldn’t wait to tell Klaus.

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts???? Please tell me???? Pleaseeeeee??? :D


End file.
